Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61656 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-20
• Released on: 2007-03-20
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 752 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Nearly 20 years after being brutally assaulted, Jentz returns to the scene of the crime demanding answers in a crusade that continues for several years. She uncovers the dark secrets of the smalltown Oregon community that kept her alleged attacker from being brought to justice. Angered by the imperfections of the criminal justice system, her efforts have generated this book to make every listener aware of how fragile the system can be. At times, Colin's reading proves engaging and certainly keeps a moderate pace for the prose. Yet occasionally, her tone denotes condescension and arrogance, particularly toward smalltown people, that may not have been Jentz's intention. The text could be making matter-of-fact statements, but Colin's tone twists the meaning. She occasionally fails to vocally clarify when she is speaking in the first person of someone else besides Jentz, who tells her tale entirely in first person. This confusion is usually sorted out after the quote, but the repeated confusion can frustrate the listener. Despite this, Colin does send shivers down listeners' spines when reading Jentz's detailed description of her assault. Simultaneous release with the Farrar, Straus & Giroux hardcover (Reviews, Feb. 27).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
Terri Jentz's harrowing story finds voice in Strange Piece of Paradise, her first book. Critics praise Jentz's courage for returning to the scene of such violence, though several comment that the difficulty of uncovering compelling evidence nearly 30 years later precludes a satisfying conclusion. The book's chronological organization also presents some minor problems, and the book can be plodding at times. Still, the shortcomings do little to mute Jentz's powerful and elegant style, her craft honed by a career as a screenwriter. Critics favorably compare the effort to Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones, Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, and Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, and they applaud the author's willingness to face her demons.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From AudioFile
In 1977, Jentz and a biking companion were brutally attacked in an Oregon park; years later she returned to investigate the unprosecuted crime. Margaret Colin's reading is generally vivid and emotive though she wisely relates horrors in a still voice more powerful than any histrionics. However, in an effort to vary expression, her voice often dips and swoops, or seems inappropriately perky. The accents she provides Northwesterners vary from none (i.e., she uses her own natural speech) to rural, Southern, and the simply peculiar. When the prose turns purple, Colin exacerbates its melodrama. Further, she has a noticeable lisp, which can be distracting. The text alone is annoying enough, without the difficulties added by the performance. W.M. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Is this a book that needed more editing?
The story of what happened to Jentz is horrible and makes for great drama. The aftermath -- her search for her still-unknown attacker, which is the main subject of the book -- could have made a decent story as well. Unfortunately the drama of it is oversold, and the story is wildly overwritten, both in length and in tone. Jentz's discovery of a prime suspect is unfortunately larded over with melodramatic writing -- those of you who've waded through the book know the title of this review is a reference to the dozens and dozens of "In Search of"-like rhetorical questions -- and a level of self-obsessiveness that, while understandable in a person's diary, should not have made it into the final version. Perhaps the editor wanted to provide an open window into how messed up Jentz became as a result of the attack; perhaps only the actual publication of far too much detail could provide her with the catharsis that she absolutely deserves. Anyone with a heart would wish Jentz peace after what she went through. But her story lost much of its power in the telling.

True Catharsis
A lot of reviewers stated that this was too redundant, that the author tended to go on and on over the same territory, and that the story could have been completed in a lot fewer words. After reading this story, I have found that I was "hooked" and that this story lingers on long after the final page is turned. It is a haunting story made all the more engrossing by the fact that it is a totally truthful accounting of one woman's attempt to identify her attacker - to identify the person who hacked her and her friend up with a hatchet and left them both for dead. I understand completely her need to do so, as well as I understand completely her friend's need not to do so. This was a catharsis for the author, and a much needed one. I can identify with this. I believe had I been the one this happened to, I would also want to know the who and the why of this terrible crime. My hat is off to this very brave lady, and I feel that this book is well worth the read! You cannot truly be a critic of this manuscript unless you yourself have experienced the same as this author.

Empowering Herself By Defusing Evil
Imagine being 20 years old, on the first real adventure of your young life, sleeping soundly after a strenuous bike journey...only to be awakened and find yourself under a truck, staring at the well-dressed torso of a cowboy yielding an ax. That is what Terri Jentz, the author of this amazing book, asks us to envision.

She and her friend, renamed Shayna, process the aftermath in two different ways. Shayna has selective amnesia based on her injuries, and is unable -- and unwilling -- to confront what has occurred. Terri, on the other hand, after several years of ennui and fear, decides to courageously confront the episode and to try to make some sense of it in order to fully heal.

This journey is what comprises this book. Interestingly, the individuals she meets again -- ranging from the teenage couple who helped save them to the nurses who were there when they reached the hospital -- were all permanently affected by this senseless act. Together again, they all help heal each other. The would-be murderer himself is larger than life and also so much smaller than life. One of the tragedies is that most of the town knew who did it, and yet, thanks to the bungling of three overlapping law enforcement agencies and overprotective parents, his act would never have been totally revealed were it not for Terri's perseverance.

This is a courageous book from a tenacious individual, and it spans 700 pages. I truly understand why Terri Jentz needed to write this book in its entirety, but I believe she needed a better editor. It lags in the middle pages, as Terri meets up with one after another lead (some true, some false); the momentum of the story begins to drag as a result. There is also very little reflection on her personal life -- the key focus is outward, not inward. We know that Terri is gay and she had an unrequited crush on Shayna. There is certain anger that Shayna is unwilling to be the "perfect listener" and to explore the ramifications of that June 22 night. I also wonder how Terri's sexual orientation played out in a conservative, cowboy town, when young women were blamed for their own independence. But these are minor points: all in all, I greatly admire Terri Jentz's courage and her larger observations on our society's passion for violence. She has important things to say.